Supernaut
Supernaut is a podcast about spirituality, sobriety, suicide, and the full spectrum of being human.
Hosted by Beth Kelling, the show opens space for honest conversations about healing, identity, and the parts of life we often keep quiet.
As the show has grown, mental health has become a defining theme. Many guests have shared deeply personal experiences with anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and loss. In response, Supernaut is dedicating more space to conversations around suicide—approaching the topic with care, honesty, and compassion.
The goal is not to sensationalize pain, but to reduce stigma, encourage vulnerability, and remind people that struggling does not mean failing—and that help, connection, and light are possible.
Whether you’re sober-curious, spiritually inclined, or simply looking for real conversations that make you feel less alone, you’re welcome here.
If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available in the U.S. by calling or texting 988. If you’re outside the U.S., visit findahelpline.com.
Supernaut
Songs, Soul, And A Small-Town Stage - Luke
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A two-string ukulele, an eight-track buzzing with Johnny Cash, and a kid who couldn’t stop pretending the ottoman was a stage—that’s where Luke's story starts. Years later, he’s a bar and restaurant owner with a nine-song record called Based on a True Story, and a life that proves craft and community can share the same roof. We sit down to map the journey from garage bands and school pop groups to the late mentor who said, lock the door and learn to sing while you play. The advice stuck, and so did the instinct to write from life: divorce, new love, and those charged nights that blur into a lyric before they become a memory.
Luke walks us through his writing process—why chords often arrive first, how a line can land whole in six minutes, and why a melody can carry more honesty than a conversation. We trade notes on Dylan, Neil Young, and Lennon’s Imagine, using them as North Stars for songs that do more than entertain; they mark us. Then the scene shifts to 125 Tavern, the space Luke and Maria built with high ceilings, sandstone walls, and a tight menu where quality wins. Thousands of flatbreads later, the place has a vibe people seek out, the kind where a stranger becomes a regular before the second slice.
We also talk about the toll and the payoff: long hours, fast turns, and the quiet gratification of serving well. Luke keeps his beliefs simple—live your life, let others live theirs, be kind—and reflects on how community sees him: vibrant, devoted, relentless, expressive, a little untamed. He admits writing a song is still the hardest job he knows, which might be why the urge to get back on stage keeps tapping him on the shoulder. If you’ve ever wondered how art, work, and home can fit together without losing their edges, this conversation offers a candid, grounded blueprint.
If this story hit a chord, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what lyric or meal brought you back to yourself?
0:00 Meet Luke
0:24 Bob Dylan And Early Sparks
2:04 Ukulele To Garage Band Beginnings
3:22 Finding Voice And Stage Nerves
5:55 Why Music Heals And Transports
5:55 Original Album And Honest Lyrics
7:21 Writing Process And Creativity
9:46 Songs We Wish We Wrote
10:39 Performing, Persona, And Connection
12:41 Opening 125 Tavern
14:44 Vibe, Menu, And Daily Rush
16:47 Naming, Numbers, And New Beginnings
18:24 Exhaustion, Rewards, And Routine
19:33 Getting Back On Stage
21:04 Dream Guests And Manifesting
21:42 Belief, Nonjudgment, And Purpose
22:30 How People See Luke
24:08 Food, Legacy, And Self Control
26:19 Closing Reflections
Meet Luke Fisner
SPEAKER_03Welcome to Supernaut, where we explore the inner and outer dimensions of the self. Today Luke Fisner is joining us. Luke is a musician, a bar and restaurant owner. He is a friend and he is a family member to so many people, and I'm excited to get some time with him to learn more about what music and life means to him. So I asked you to pick a song for us to listen to together before we started so we could get on the same frequency. What song did you pick?
SPEAKER_02That was uh Bob Dylan, Simple Twist of Fate. Um it's one of my faves, so it's just got a nice flow.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm. Do you remember the first time you heard it?
SPEAKER_02Ooh, geez. I don't know maybe 30 years ago. I don't know. When I was getting into music, Bob Dylan was one of them. And uh yeah, it's just always been one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_03He's been one of the big influences.
SPEAKER_02Neil Young, Petty, Springsteen, the singer-songwriters, the good ones. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03When did you know that music was more than just music to you, but it was a part of you?
SPEAKER_02Um probably when I was like four or five years old, we had a little ukulele in our house with two strings on it. And uh, we had our eight track and would put Johnny Cash in there, and Elvis Presley, and I'd get on the auto man and sit up there like I was a rock star. And like my mom would say, Yeah, someday you'll I think you're gonna be an entertainer, Luke. So that's later on in life, it kind of happened.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I always wanted music to be a big theme of the podcast, so I'm so excited to talk to you. I have so many questions about music. Um, that's so great that at such a young age.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, let's see. And then like in seventh grade, your I took guitar lessons from your brother, Steve. Oh, just really learned some G C's and D's, and because he had a band and kind of looked up to him and well, we want to do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Ukulele To Garage Band Beginnings
SPEAKER_02So we started a little garage band in seventh, eighth, ninth grade, we learned our eight songs that we knew, and we thought we were rock pads.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's so cool. I didn't know that. So he was like a senior, maybe, and you were like seventh, eighth grade?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, yeah. He was class 89, I was 93.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02But we uh looked up to the band stunned and whatnot, and our band was called Iron Angels.
SPEAKER_03Oh, love that. Was it hard to find other band members, or did you find people right away?
SPEAKER_02It's just our little rap pack group, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I feel like music can never be quite like it was back then where it was because now there's so technology and so many other little videos to look into, so many other things to do. But back then I feel like it was music that bonded you together. Um, when I was a teenager looking at my brother's pictures of him and his band and the long hair and everything, I was like so envious of why I couldn't have I been older and been able to grow up in that in that era with them, especially, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was a really good era for when all those guys are coming out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Bob Dylan, Springsteen, like yeah. Well, ev everybody, you know, just changing lives.
SPEAKER_02It was good times, good music, yeah. Still around today. Or it lives on, you know, it always lives on.
Finding Voice And Stage Nerves
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Any other instruments that you learned?
SPEAKER_02Uh learned the mouth organ, harmonica. Well, uh I used to deliver medical supplies, and that's when I discovered Neil Young. It was sometime after St. Cloud State. I was probably 20, I don't know. Went and bought a harmonica, and I think uh that still had tape decks in the thing. I put the tape in and just copy what he was doing to heart of gold to learn by ear. And I can play a little piano, but I don't uh but guitar, slide guitar.
SPEAKER_03When did you start singing?
SPEAKER_02Singing took me a while. Um it was probably I was about 19. After I came home from Hibbean Community College, uh, lived the summer at you know my mom's house, and uh I used to hang out with Harry Kent, the late great Harry Kent, and he'd come over and play the guitar and sing and teach me stuff, or I'd listen to him and I envied what he could do. And like, how do you play and sing at the same time? How do you do that? I can't do that. You know, I can just strum. And he's like, Well, you just gotta uh go pick one of your favorite songs, lock yourself in your room, and like don't come out and tell you figure it out and just do it, just repetitiveness and just find it. And I did.
SPEAKER_03That's great advice.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, he was influenced me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Were you nervous to sing before that and wanted to, or just hasn't really crossed your mind?
SPEAKER_02I wasn't ner nervous about it because I tried out for the plays and I got picked for pop group in choir, you know, where you're you're the one in the front singing and dancing.
SPEAKER_03So you were always in entertainment.
SPEAKER_02Keith Lester's like, we got a good voice, you're gonna do this. And I'm like, well, I don't want to do that. Like I thought it wasn't cool to be in the pop group, but did it anyway. And it was fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. What did music give you that nothing else could?
unknownWhat did music give me?
SPEAKER_02I just think uh music is good for your heart and soul. It it takes you to another place. You can just drift off with it or escape into it. Escape and love it. You gotta love it.
SPEAKER_03Uh so you released a nine-song original album called Based on a True Story. We'll show a picture of that. Uh where did that title come from?
SPEAKER_02Uh because most of the songs are truthful life events, circumstances, what have you. So I just thought that's this is true stuff. This this happened to me, or you know.
SPEAKER_03Is it easier to be uh more honest in music and lyrics than it is in real life?
SPEAKER_02Um I'd say yeah, these are pretty heartfelt lyrics, you know. Yeah, so I'd say so.
SPEAKER_03Do you have a favorite lyric that you wrote?
SPEAKER_02I was thinking about that when you texted me. Um I mean, there's a lot, but um it's hard to pick just one lyric. But I like I'll say I like the song ends with a teardrop, but starts like but we both walk off and carrying seven deadly sins. You know, walk in hand and off we went, you know, through the darkness to search for a light ahead. I thought that was kind of a good flow.
Writing Process And Creativity
SPEAKER_03I just read in the book The Art of War that um in the first chapter, it talks about how Hitler went to art school and he went to architecture school, but he never painted, he never designed anything. So it was literally easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to be artistic. And like, because that's what this book is about the war of art, of how all of us are born with these skills and um this art inside of us, but it's so hard, so scary to actually do it. You know what I mean? So literally, it was easier for him to start World War II than to tap into his own art. And if he was able to tap into his art, if we had better systems in place, more um freedom to be creative, how much better could the world looked and could it look now? So, what's your process? Like, how did you actually write nine songs? Because that's huge. That's something that so many people want to do and can never do.
SPEAKER_02Um well, I guess how they all came about is a life event. One's, you know, about divorce, one's about meeting Maria, my significant other now, and you know, I'd have to oh, table for two. It's just kind of a like a one-night stand kind of song, you know, like they're just how long does it take you to write each one? Some uh came really fast, like uh five minutes. It's just kind of a spur of the moment, and you just jot it down and then go back and edit, and oh this will sound better there, or you know, and just work it out. And then then you gotta bring get the chords to it, you know, or whatever. You just yeah, because which comes first thinking.
SPEAKER_03Which comes first, like the lyric melody, or just the emotion of it.
SPEAKER_02The chords kind of come first, and then try to think of some nice words to go to it. Yeah. And it just happened, like table for two took like, yeah, six minutes, the whole thing was written, and like it was something else c came to me and did it, kinda.
unknownYeah.
Songs We Wish We Wrote
SPEAKER_03Is there anything you can do to tap into creativity that you know of that has worked before?
SPEAKER_02I think it just happens. Yeah, for me it just happened that way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, is there a song out there that you wish you had written?
SPEAKER_02Oh well, probably every Bob Dylan and Neil Young song and Patty song.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Those guys are amazing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, or Imagine by John Lennon. Just think if you wrote that song, I mean, I think there's not a soul in the world that doesn't know who wrote that song.
SPEAKER_03So true. I still remember the first time I heard that song.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it gets you.
Performing, Persona, And Connection
SPEAKER_03So when you're up on stage, is there um is there a part of you that can be somebody different than you are in everyday life? Does the entertainer in you come out at all? I guess I haven't been on stage in a while since we opened the tavern, but I thought the whole point of opening it was so that you could be on stage whenever you wanted.
SPEAKER_02Well, I still can. I just but it's just it's just a different world right now. And um Yeah, I'd kind of get into a little care different character on nights I played, you know, in the cities or whatever, I'd throw my cool yellow glasses on and wear something a little different than what I would normally wear, probably. And then hit the stage and go at it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Is the goal to the goal of performing to create connection or release or understanding? Or like what is getting you to get up there?
SPEAKER_02Just because I always knew I could do it, like I saw other people do it, and I'm like, well, I can be that one man band. Like I do it in my um my bedroom all the time or in front of the bathroom mirror, and I can I'm capable of it.
SPEAKER_03Just because people are there doesn't change it.
SPEAKER_02She gave me a shot and but and never stopped for 14 years.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, well, I'll take extra two, three hundred bucks a gig. So it it helped financially too.
SPEAKER_03So what do you want people to feel when they're in the room watching you perform?
SPEAKER_02Oh want them just uh I guess feel happy and like, wow, that's a great song. And like, God, he wow, that guy can play the harmonica. He's he's good, you know. And yeah, I like you know, get a little pat on the back when you take a break and you say thank you. Like you like it when somebody actually appreciates you or throws a$20 tip in there, and you know which guy did that. And you after a break, you go say thank you or shake his hand, and yeah, it's it's nice feeling.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm.
Opening 125 Tavern
unknownMm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so getting into opening the bar, how did that decision come to be? Which, thank you, by the way. I mean, my favorite pizza in town, my favorite place to play trivia. It's the only bar that I go to anymore. It's so beautiful in there, it's so welcoming.
SPEAKER_02You've got your NA Guinness.
SPEAKER_03Everything about yes, I wrote you two weeks ago a picture of N.A. Guinness. I was like, would be awesome, and you hooked it up. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02You're welcome. Uh the bar thing, um, well, the only I wasn't I moved up here back here four years ago or whatever, and I wasn't working besides doing eight or nine gigs um a month to make money, and I was kind of getting a little burnt out on it. But uh I had met Maria and she had surgery on her arm, and she was working at the Wellia Hospital, and long story short, they couldn't get her back on her you know, full-time shift or whatever. And so she she bought the building. Like I have nothing to do with it. I just put a lien on my house to do the construction loan and whatnot. And uh started planning that out and drew up plans, got a contractor, sent stuff to the state, and you know, went went to all the food places to sample food and pick what what we want and try what we want and to work on our menu, and and we were just gonna keep it simple, stupid, you know, and and what we do is quality over quantity, and our stuff sells every day. Like it's it's crazy.
SPEAKER_03Well, and it's genius to like close at a decent time every night so that you don't have to deal with the drama and small town mora, nothing's after, yeah.
Vibe, Menu, And Daily Rush
SPEAKER_02It's kind of a ghost town after 10 o'clock in Mora on most nights. Um, but yeah, that first year we opened up May 18th of 24, and to May of 25, we made 6,000 fat 6,527 flatbread pizzas. Oh and I think we're on pace to even surpass that when we get our next anniversary.
SPEAKER_03Especially if you get the pickle one on the menu.
SPEAKER_02It's on there. Okay, the pickle one's on there.
SPEAKER_03Or no, I'm thinking the Buffalo Blast. That's the one that's the one I really want to do.
SPEAKER_02How do you how do you get that? It's not even on the menu.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But it'll when we make new menus, there'll be some subtle changes, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, all that excitement of opening a place, what was the scariest part?
SPEAKER_02Um just just seeing if people are gonna come through the door, you know, like you don't know.
SPEAKER_03Like what has surprised you the most?
SPEAKER_02Just that patrons come every day. It's and people are passing through from out of town. There's people I meet somebody new every day when they they Google us. I think we're at like a four-nine on the four nine stars or whatever, and they come there and they're like they look around and they get treated well and serviced well, and they just love it.
SPEAKER_03What do you think is the magic that gets everybody in there?
SPEAKER_02I just think uh I think the building has a good vibe.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02Just the high ceilings, the sandstone walls, and the bars. Some of the decor that yeah, the bars like sexy and yeah, um yeah, and uh I I guess and Maria and myself treat every customer the same, you know, and welcome and thanks for coming and come, you know, just be friendly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just be friendly and nice.
SPEAKER_03All of that together just makes for a magical place.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03How'd you come up with the name 125 Tavern?
Naming, Numbers, And New Beginnings
SPEAKER_02Um, well, it's the address of it's on 125 Ray Road Avenue Southwest. So we picked 125 Tavern. And uh could we're gonna say saloon or bot, we didn't know. We just there was a bunch of names. I can't might have been Snake River Saloon at one time, but we stuck with that. And then if you Google 125, it's like an angelic number and prosperity and stuff. So Google that sometime and see what 125 means. It's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, you do that.
SPEAKER_02125.
SPEAKER_03That's wonderful. What do you hope people feel when they walk in the door?
SPEAKER_02Well, some guy was just walked in there today and he's like, God, I just get a good vibe when I walk in here. Like, I just feel comfortable. He's like, I just he's just felt good. Some that guy was about 70 years old and he just had a bloody merry and watched some of the USA hockey game, and I'll be back. Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_03Well, I believe that 100%. That's how I feel when I walk in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_03How have you changed since owning a bar?
SPEAKER_02Exhaustion.
SPEAKER_03Exhaustion.
SPEAKER_02No, I'm I'm good. It's just I'm it's there's some long days. Like today it was a long eight hours. It was eight hours, but it's felt like 12.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you don't get a brain.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's you just running and running and yeah.
Exhaustion, Rewards, And Routine
SPEAKER_03I was just talking with somebody about that, like oh Angie when she was here last week, of how yeah, I mean, eight-hour shift you're legally supposed to have some breaks, but not in the bar.
SPEAKER_02I take breaks, but it's just we're there all day, every day, except for Tuesdays. And Tuesdays we still go check on the refrigeration systems and check it out, but yeah, it's it's exhausting and tiring, but it's worth it. So I wouldn't want to do anything else, like work for somebody else. It's fun to have the gig with Maria. It's fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Did you find that? Angel number 125 is a source of hope and inspiration for the ones who desire to get up on their feet and give life a second chance.
SPEAKER_02So it kind of it was I don't know, maybe it was just meant to be me moving back here and meeting Maria and whole second life. Just kind of yeah, I kind of started a whole new life up here. Like you know, my kids are growing up now, and yeah, so it's good to be home.
Getting Back On Stage
SPEAKER_03Is it harder to write a song or run a bar and restaurant?
SPEAKER_02Probably harder to write a song. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, when are you gonna get back up there and perform?
SPEAKER_02Well, there's an open date Saturday, March 21st. If I get some energy and desire to play again because I'm lacking it, you know, it's just I haven't practiced for a while, but kinda miss it. But maybe in March. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03It it's I would write that on my calendar right now and say I'm gonna be there, but I wrote on my calendar today that I'm going to a pickle party that day where everybody who goes has to make something that has pickles in it, which is gonna be super fun. And I'm really excited.
SPEAKER_02Otherwise, so you're gonna make something?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, last year.
SPEAKER_02So you come to the tavern and just pick up some pickle wraps. Yes.
SPEAKER_03Then you don't know or a the pickle pizza.
SPEAKER_02There you go.
SPEAKER_03So great, yes. Because I can't even remember what I made. Last year I made pickle flavored check smex. Um, but this year I will bring pickle pizza or pickle well, yeah. The roll-ups. Yeah. Yeah. But I'd have to get like 20 orders and that would be really expensive.
SPEAKER_02Probably.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Um, so who would be your dream performer to come play at the tavern? Anyone in the world.
SPEAKER_02Anybody anybody like anybody alive.
SPEAKER_01Alive?
SPEAKER_02I think Neil Young would be cool to just come in there and rocket for a little bit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Heart of God.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, yeah, so many other songs. So many songs. Yeah, that yeah, him? Dylan? I don't know. Willie Nelson.
SPEAKER_03Let's manifest it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, more is kinda on the map.
SPEAKER_02Kinda. Getting there.
Belief, Nonjudgment, And Purpose
SPEAKER_03Okay, so Supernaut's big theme is spirituality, or one of the big themes. So I've never asked you before what do you believe in?
SPEAKER_02What do I believe in?
SPEAKER_03Why do you think we're here?
SPEAKER_02Why do I think we're here? I think I don't know. Somebody put us here and they gave us a Life to live and what you do in that time is up to you. And believe what you want to believe.
SPEAKER_03Do what you gotta do and uh believe in not judging people for what they believe, just do what you do.
SPEAKER_02Do what you do, be your just do what you do. And it's no no big deal to me what you do. Like yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so now we're on to the segment where I reveal to you how people see you.
SPEAKER_02Oh, geez.
SPEAKER_03I asked you to give me the names and numbers of people I could reach out to that know you really well, and then I asked them to describe you in adjectives, six or seven adjectives, and then I put those in the themes because we do this because I think it's just really hard for us to see ourselves how other people see us.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you don't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Food, Legacy, And Self Control
SPEAKER_03So your first word is vibrant, because you're charismatic, electric, commanding, funny, stylish, ris rhythmic, musical, and mysterious. And your second word is devoted. This is how you show up for people. You're kind-hearted, loving, supporting, encouraging, loyal, attentive, thoughtful, compatible, and humble. And then third word is relentless, is two people said driven, competitive, passionate, two people said athletic, visionary, unafraid, and stubborn. Fourth word is expressive, because two people said creative, artistic, talented, soulful, authentic, confident, genuine, liberated, and observant. And fifth word is untamed because you're scattered, tense, fidgety, mischievous, complacent, carefree, self-centered, little selfish, curious. So your synopsis is you're the energy and the afterglow, the rhythm we feel long after the show, a kinetic fire with a perceptive soul, the song we know and never outgrow. Please remember you are not these words. You are not your thoughts. You are the space between the words, the space between the thoughts. You're the one who knows you have thoughts. Observe them, reflect on them, but know you are not them. Also, somebody described you as loving food and drinks and is always hungry. So what's your favorite food?
SPEAKER_02Oh, my favorite food? Well, I love pizza.
SPEAKER_03That's that was easy to go that direction with the tavern.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, there's lots of things I like. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. What uh do you do right now that you hope your grandchildren do when they're your age?
SPEAKER_02Well, I hope they're both musical. That would be nice. And uh hopefully they're just a good person, good people. I don't know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03What do you do that you hope that they don't do? What vices do you still need to give up?
SPEAKER_02Don't be like quite like your grandpa, but be like a quarter of them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like in what ways?
SPEAKER_02Oh, just, you know. Just uh used to be that party boy back in the day, you know. But I just hope they're not like that. And my kids aren't like that. So hopefully they can pass that on to our kids.
SPEAKER_03And what's wrong with partying?
SPEAKER_02Nothing. I can get you in trouble.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Just have more self control. I I'm somebody who doesn't have self control, so I can say that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_03Well, anything else that you thought we would talk about that we didn't get to? Anything you want to share?
SPEAKER_02It's pretty good. Right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Very good.
Closing Reflections
SPEAKER_02It was a good time.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm. Thanks so much for coming on.
SPEAKER_02You're welcome.